Photos: Close-up views of the Hollywood sign's new paint job and facelift

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Painters prime the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles. The crew started working on the project on October 2, 2012.

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Jesus Garibay prepares to scrap off old paint on the "L" of the Hollywood sign.

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Painters bring down primer and Universal White paint to the Hollywood sign on October 26, 2012,

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The painting crew scraped off an inch thick layer of old paint and graffiti from the Hollywood sign.

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Jesus Garibay pressure washes the "O" of the Hollywood sign. After pressure washing the sign, the painting crew will scrap off the layers of old paint.

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The Hollywood sign is set to be repainted by the end of November 2012.

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The painting crew works for Duggan and Associates Inc.

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Victor Galindo, the foreman, applies primer to the "L" of the Hollywood sign on October 26th, 2012.

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George Solorio organizes hoses used for pressure washing at the Hollywood sign on October 26, 2012.

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The sign is painted in Universal White.

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After the Dumont paper is applied to the steel, it sits for 24 hours to help dissolve the paint and then the team pressure washes the material off.

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Victor Galindo, the foreman, scrapes away old paint from the "L" with a tool that he made specifically for the grooves of the Hollywood sign.

The Hollywood Sign is undergoing a major new paint job and facelift for the first time in 35 years, and we got up close and personal with it. Check out our full photo gallery above.

For nearly a month now, workers have been stripping off layers upon layers of paint and graffiti slathered onto the giant sign in the Hollywood Hills over the decades.

They'll sand down the corrugated steel, apply a primer and spray on a new glossy coat of white paint. (For those who want to duplicate the color in their own homes, it's Sherwin-Williams Emerald Exterior Satin Acrylic Latex paint.)

The sign was first hauled up to the top of Mount Lee as an advertisement for a new land development called "Hollywoodland." In 1949, the "land" portion of the sign was taken down, leaving the shorter, more generic and now more famous nine-letter sign: "Hollywood."

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